How to: Wedding Registries

Welcome to wedding class, today we will be discussing a part of wedding planning that is extremely fun but a bit difficult if you are clueless like myself.

At the beginning of this whole wedding planning process I had a conversation like this:

Feminist Lindsay: But why should people give me gifts? No one gave me a gift when I got a job? No one gave gifts when I got a promotion? And what about all the successful people who don't get married - what a horrible message! You get married - you get presents! You have babies - more presents! Success in life - no one cares!
Friend: We got a Vitamix from our registry.
Me: What was I saying about registries again?

So, here we are with a wedding registry and here's how we did it:

1. After reading about Kelly's experience I decided to do all the registering online.

2. I love when my friends have Honeyfund registries because I like the idea of giving an experience (or buying their drinks!) so we set up a Honeyfund which took all of 10 minutes (something easy in wedding process! Thank you!). The site is super helfpul with plenty of sample registries on their homepage and constant communication so you know what the heck you're supposed to do next, if you did something wrong, and how to fix it.

3. Next I found this incredibly helpful checklist of everything you could possibly want to register for on TheKnot and basically copied and pasted all of it into a spreadsheet (spreadsheet was totally unnecessary but Excel serves as a security blanket for me).

4. Then I embarked on some obsessive intense research on the products we were registering for. First I checked Consumer reports and Good Housekeeping Product Reviews, and once I narrowed down our lists I checked Amazon reviews for these products and picked the highest reviewed products. This was really time consuming but I want to have most of these things for the rest of my life! And I've taken the work out of it for you and posted the top products below.

5. Next, we registered on Macy's because what doesn't exist at Macy's (answer: turns out a lot of things)?

6. Then, we set up our registry on Amazon (sidenote: Amazon has everything Macy's has but cheaper, however not all guests completely understand Amazon so we registered at both). My favorite feature of Amazon registry was that you can stalk other people's registries who have registered for similar products! Genius!

7. Once the registries went live I kept my eye on both to make sure we had plenty of gifts at each price point (you should always have plenty of $20-50 gifts, $50+, then some big ticket items).

8. As gifts came in, I checked the cards/gifts/gift receipts with the online thank you managers in case there were any discrepancies (for example: any gift classified as an electric from Macy's only shows up as "electric" on the thank you manager, not the specific item they got you). I tracked any confusing things in a Googledoc.

These are some highlights from our registries (based on my psychotic research), feel free to check out our registries for inspiration here:

Amazon:

Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Vacuum (NV370) - bye bye allergies! and pet hair anywhere!! And everything I hate about vacuums (this weights like 8 lbs and basically whispers). We use this as a duster (it has an attachment to essentially vacuum all your furniture), vacuum and broom.

Miracle Blade III 16 Piece Knife and Block Set  - I've fantasized about having my own set of these puppies since that infomercial in the 90's where the guy throws a pizza box in the air and SLICES THE BOX IN HALF IN THE AIR.

Vidalia Chop Wizard- YOU CAN MINCE AN ENTIRE ONION IN 60 SECONDS.

CQ Wellness Tri-Blade Vegetable Spiral Slicer, FDA Approved - shoestring sweet potatoes every. single. night. for the rest of our lives. till death do us part.

Vivere Double Hammock with Space Saving Steel Stand, Oasis - can't wait to use this, assuming warm weather ever shows its face again.

Flowtron BK-15D Electronic Insect Killer, 1/2 Acre Coverage - bye mosquitoes!

Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor - Because drinking champagne with store-bought OJ is for peasants (haha). And we are trying to stay healthy and I saw a doc on Netflix that convinced me juice is the answer to life's problems.

Samsonite Silhouette Sphere 25" Spinner - Bright colors, lifetime warranty, SPINNY WHEELS.

Vitamix Professional Series 750 Blender  - I used the very official research survey method of survey via Facebook and Vitamix came out the winner due to its metal blades, easy-to-cleanness, and I once had "ice cream" made with no dairy and avocados that felt like ice cream at a Costco demo. Here is a chart that compares the different Vitamix series, and this interactive chart allows you to compare Vitamix, Blendtec and Ninja.. If this insane price is too much of a deterrent, Amazon also offers certified refurbished Vitamix for a fraction of the price. Also I know a lot people out there who have a Blendtec and swear by that too (it is about half the price of a new Vitamix).


Macy's

Dansk Flatware 18/10, Classic Fjord II 5 Piece Place Setting - My research says register for 8 place settings, 18/10 is the hardness you want, make sure there are no crevices/hard to clean areas, and that the silverware is ONE piece

Fiesta Dinnerware - no chip warranty, easy to clean, amazing reviews everywhere. We got all white dishes since we are bahhhring, with bright colored pitchers and ramekens. 

Crock-Pot SCCPVL619-S-A Programmable Cook & Carry with Little Dipper Warmer, 6 Qt - A LOCKING LID (praise the crockpot gods for that one), a programmable timer that automatically switches to warm, dishwasher safe, and how damn cute is that little dipper.

Hoover Air Purifier - Because allergies

Anolon Advanced Bronze Cookware - Everything I read said this is best or 2nd best. So far sticky food hasn't stood a chance against these, and it no longer appears that I have lit the kitchen on fire every time I cook.

Martha Stewart Collection Plush - I conducted my own hands-on field research for these which included me going to Macy's and touching every single towel. Harrison's first-hand review: "These are fucking luxurious".

What are your favorite kitchen/household items? What brands have you had good experiences with?